For PMF and the at trolls - Here we go - a new Data Centre for Sydney. Gee, I wish EDE was involved in supplying material for these new data centres. Oh wait, we are !
JULY 14, 2021
Macquarie Telecom flicks the switch on massive data centre
One of Australia’s biggest data centres is being planned, with an enormous 32 megawatt facility proposed for Sydney’s northern suburbs to meet an explosion in demand as more businesses shift their operations online.
Macquarie Telecom will push ahead with the cutting edge – and energy hungry – facility to be funded by an initial investment of about $78m.
Data centres are flourishing on the back of rapidly rising e-commerce demand and Covid-19 also increasing the acceptance of remote working.
At the same time the rising risks linked to cybersecurity is prompting companies to outsource their data to Fort Knox-style facilities.
“This is a global scale data centre,” Macquarie Telecom chief executive David Tudehope said on Wednesday.
“This is the sort of size of data centre you would see in London or Singapore, or one of the major US cities.”
“Where that’s really important is when global cloud companies as well as regional local cloud companies are looking at where they deploy their cloud,” Mr Tudhope said.
“There is no question this will make Australia and NSW more attractive.
“Global cloud companies and large multinationals want to know that they can scale.
“They want to know that as their business continues to grow strongly that they can stay at the same data centres and scale within the data centre, and not have to find another centre and do more negotiations.”
The new centre, to be called Intellicentre 3 Super West, will draw an enormous amount of power. On the basis of one megawatt powering 800 homes, it will use the equivalent power of about 25,000 homes. It is expected to create more than 1200 jobs in construction, engineering, cybersecurity and other areas.
It will be located in the Sydney North Zone at the Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus, bringing the total load at the campus to 50MW.
Construction of phase one is expected to be completed in the second half of 2023, subject to final board approvals, with planning permission expected to be granted in early 2022.
Apart from servicing corporates, government and multinationals, the new centre will enhance NSW’s cybersecurity infrastructure and capabilities.
Macquarie said it would be home to a Sovereign Cyber Security Centre of Excellence, providing skills development as the sector battles a major shortage.
Mr Tudehope said the security and privacy offered by a huge Australian data centre would draw some customers, but this depended on their priorities. Some customers would see cybersecurity as critical.
“We’ve worked so hard to obtain all the federal government security classifications, and about 170 staff have been security cleared. That’s really important.
“For other customers, cybersecurity is more about the integrity of the operations so that the data will be always up if there was a cyber attack”.
“For customers who may be corporate or national clients, the fact that we can do a lot more in the cybersecurity space to strengthen their local team, because it’s so hard to get cybersecurity skills, that will also be a compelling offering. So a little bit depends on the customer need.”
Macquarie said it would provide skills development to the in-demand sector, which needed around 18,000 new workers in Australia by 2026, according to AustCyber. Its data centres had been in high demand, with about a 10MW IT load contracted with a leading global corporation in November 2020.
Mr Tudehope said Macquarie built its first data centre in Sydney 20 years ago and had been scaling up since. Major clients include global software companies that offer software-as-a-service.
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